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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Day 4, more climbing

Another long hilly one today. 90 miles only 3 climbs but they were all pretty long. we totaled almost 8000 feet of elevation, and I was out to prove myself to my new teammates. I felt good and I figured that the legs would be better today. On the first climb, the back side of a climb we did the other day, Jay Baer put in a big acceleration and I followed. After a minute or so he let up, just opening up his legs I’m sure, and I kept the pace going I was feeling strong. It was early in the ride and I didn’t want to go over the edge to soon. But I was under control and seemingly putting some space between myself and my teammates. As I approached the top I tock a few deep breaths and tried to stretch out the 3 days of tightness that were already creeping into the legs. Joe and Eric Pearson were not far behind. Joe was “stretching” his legs a bit as well. A long beautiful decent and some more gorgeous roads, Have I mentioned the riding and scenery here is awesome!? The next climb was long. Not so steep a bit of a head wind, it was a very windy day today, and about 45’ of climbing we reached the top of the next gap. Joe, Eric P. and my self laid down some serious tempo on this climb for the entire duration, 10+ miles or so. We then meandered through some rolling terrain. And by the way the “rolling” roads out here ROLLING! Steep as the steepest Trapelo road hills (for those of you that know it) and 3 times as long or longer. Tough riding. So onto the last climb, Wolf Pen Gap. This is the one closest to our house. Not to long 3 miles 20 minute climb. From the back side its broken up into 2 section so its not so bad. I really laid it down on this, the last of our climbs, Jay Baer came with me and I gave it everything I had. finally he dropped back a bit only to sprint back up to me right at the top! And he said he’s not a climber. If that’s the case I have a lot of work to do! After the decent, I caught up to my team, waiting for me. Because as you remember I descend pretty poorly. I got there and the comments started. “what happened dude? You have a mechanical?” If you know me and my past you could understand how sometimes this would really get to me. But we won’t get into that. I was mad not at the ribbing but more at why I suck at going down hill. I just can’t keep up! So still feeling frisky I went t o the front in the now brutal head/cross wind and road as hard as I could. After 10-15 minutes the yelling started. I figured I made my point and we settled into a “more efficient” pace headed home directly into a 30 MPH head wind with gusts 35-40! A killer day, I was broken and so was everyone else. Teammate spotlight: Joe MoodyJoe is a… precise guy. An engineer. He’s also easy to get along with, a guy you can just talk to. That’s sometimes hard to find with really smart people. You know those people that are just to smart for there own good all they can talk about is how to divide a Neutron, or discuss there’re own theory’s on building the next longest suspension bridge. Were off the point here but he’s a good guy. he’s also the team director, has put together this whole trip and trains like a mad man. So yeah he’s also a good multi-tasker. Joe is training for later in the season so he has been keeping the intensity a bit lower. Today he gave us a taste of what he has “under the hood”. Its always frustrating when your riding up a steep climb, have blood coming out your ears, snot running down your face and he say something like. “wow look at that view” in a totally composed and calm voice? Ohh yeah and after our 4:20 death march. Joe did another 40 minutes just to make sure he got in 5hr! (I went with being sure not to be out done). This is someone who I am very happy to have on my team and race against anymore. Really happy. Now the team and I will have the job of being strong enough to help him out in the long grueling climbs of the road races that stretch over 4 hours and we all better be up to it. Joe doesn’t like failure, and he doesn’t sugar coat anything. He’ll be the first to tell you your wrong or you screwed up. Keep an eye out this name. It will surely be in the top part of the results pages.